To the “Catholic Mom of 4 Boys” Who Has a Problem With My Leggings

Okay, first of all, I have to say: Are we still having this conversation?

This feels so 2014. I thought the leggings/yoga pants discussion had run its course. But a viral letter from one disgruntled mother to the Notre Dame student newspaper that has recently sparked outrage and a “Legging Pride Day” protest on campus proves otherwise.

“I’m just a Catholic mother of four sons with a problem that only girls can solve: leggings,” Maryann White writes in the opening her plea. “The emergence of leggings as pants some years ago baffled me. They’re such an unforgiving garment.”

She continued to explain that leggings had recently invaded her and her son’s space while at Mass at the Basilica where a group of young women stood with the “snug-fitting” bottoms that appeared to be “painted on”:

“I was ashamed for the young women at Mass. I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds. My sons know better than to ogle a woman’s body — certainly when I’m around (and hopefully, also when I’m not). They didn’t stare, and they didn’t comment afterwards. But you couldn’t help but see those blackly naked rear ends. I didn’t want to see them — but they were unavoidable. How much more difficult for young guys to ignore them.”

Well, you know what else is about to invade your son’s space?: the Internet, porn at the click-of-a-finger, half-naked Instagram models, girls in bikinis at the pool, scantily-clothed heathens on the streets who are NOT at church and do not hold your same views on modesty… and the list goes on.

How do you plan to protect them from this? Or are we approaching the ‘legging epidemic’ from the wrong angle?

Is the issue women’s clothes, or the man’s self-control?

Now don’t get me wrong, as a lover of leggings myself (I’m actually wearing them at work right now — with my behind nicely covered by a dress, thank you very much), I have no issue with women who have decided against them for their own personal reasons, whether that be as a sign of respect to other men, their husbands, God, or themselves.

You do you, girl. That’s awesome. I think it’s admirable to be mindful of what you wear.

However, to place the responsibility of a man’s actions on the woman is not only unbiblical but also a dangerous perpetuation of the rape culture already running rampant in our society.

Oh, you mean the girl who Brock Turner raped behind a dumpster at Stanford was wearing LEGGINGS? Well, that got left out of the report. In that case, she totally asked for it. How was he supposed to resist taking off those bottoms clearly crafted by the hand of Satan?